The present invention relates to a slip processing apparatus which can process a plurality of slips of different forms but which are related to one another.
In a department store, for instance, a number of transportation slips must be prepared when transportation of a commodity is requested by a customer. For example, there may be prepared: (1) a work slip which relates to the removal of the commodity from storage and the packing of the commodity at a transportation center, (2) a slip which is bonded to the commodity to serve as an identifying tag (hereinafter referred to as "a commodity slip"), (3) a work slip (hereinafter referred to as "a depot slip") which is used at a small depot between the transportation center and the final destination, and (4) a delivery acknowledgement slip which is used to acknowledge the arrival of the commodity at its destination. In other words, when delivery of a commodity is requested by a customer, the department store must prepare a number of different transportation slips which take different forms according to the type of processing which is to take place. The types of data which may be included on the slips are items such as the name of a commodity, the destination or address to which the commodity should be delivered, and the name of the customer.
In the case where a customer requests the department store to deliver commodities to a relatively small number of destinations, frequently the department store will ask the customer to write specified data such as destinations on the slips. More specifically, in such a case, the department store prepares a stack of slips and asks the customer to write the specified data on the slips with carbon sheets inserted therebetween. Alternately, the department store may employ a stack of slips made of pressure-sensitive paper so that carbon paper is not needed. When the number of destinations is relatively small, the department store can readily prepare the various forms of slips as described above.
On the other hand, if the number of destinations to which commodities should be delivered is relatively large, more than ten for instance, the department store ordinarily writes the necessary data on the slips according to a commodity purchase application which is prepared by the customer.
Further, during busy periods and times when many customers request the department store to deliver commodities or gifts to a number of different destinations, the department store may employ any of the following slip processing systems:
(1) a split system, PA1 (2) a manual writing system, and PA1 (3) a copying system.
The split system is illustrated in FIGS. 1a-1c. Here, a customer writes the necessary data on a purchase application 1 through a carbon sheet, and the application is then treated with alcohol and loaded into a printer 2. In this case, a column 3 in which a destination and a commodity name have been written is set on the printer 2 as it is (that is, without being cut off), while a column 4 in which the address, name, and telephone number of the requesting person have been written is cut off and set at a different position on the printer 2. When the printer 2 is operated under this condition, the columns 3 are selected one by one and the data in the column 4 is added to the contents of the columns thus selected. As a result, a number of transportation slips 5A through 5E, which take different forms, are provided as shown in FIG. 1c.
The manual writing system is illustrated in FIGS. 2a and 2b. In this system, a person in the department store copies the necessary data, which have been written on a memo 6 or predetermined from 7 by a customer, onto a plurality of transportation slips 8A through 8B (FIG. 2b) made of pressure-sensitive paper as described before.
The copying system is illustrated in FIGS. 3a and 3b. As shown in FIG. 3a, the department store selects an overlay 12 for a particular customer by referring to a "requesting person" column 11 in a purchase application 9 having a predetermined form in which necessary data have been written by the customer. With the overlay 12 placed on the purchase application 9, transportation slips 13A through 13E are printed by a printer.
The above-described conventional slip processing systems suffer from the following problems:
(i) In the split system or in the copy system, it is impossible to write the necessary data on a plurality of transportation slips in one action. That is, it is necessary to write or print the necessary data as many times as the number of slips. In addition, different forms and the names of individual slips must be printed or copied onto printing sheets or copying sheets.
(ii) In the manual writing system, errors are liable to take place in writing the necessary data, thus lowering the clerical efficiency.
(iii) In the copying system, various processing data can be dealt with. However, it takes labor and time to cut off the copied sheet separately according to the data.
(iv) In all of the above-described systems, a series of slips provided according to one kind of processing data must be returned to the department where the slip or slips are firstly used, after being fixed together with a stapler or the like, so that none of the slips will be separated.
As is apparent from the above description, the conventional slip processing systems are disadvantageous in that not only are they low in slip processing efficiency, but also the data written on the slips may not always be high in reliability.
In view of the foregoing, an object of the invention is to provide a slip processing apparatus in which necessary data can be written onto work slips in a single action, and in which it is unnecessary to cut up any sheets for assembling the work slips or to have to attach a series of work slips to one another.